The surrounding area was originally occupied by the Ma people – especially in the area that is now Cat Loc (in the 1960s eastern Nam Cat Tien was described as inhabité ['uninhabited'][4]) – and Stieng people in western Dong Nai Province. After the formation of the park, many of these people were re-settled in Talai village, to the south-west of Nam Cat Tien.
Cát Tiên National Park (CTNP) was protected initially in 1978 as two sectors, Nam Cat Tien and Tay Cat Tien. Another sector, Cat Loc, was gazetted as a rhinoceros reserve in 1992 upon the discovery of a population of the Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros, an occasion that brought the park into the world's eye. The three areas were combined to form one park in 1998. Nam Cat Tien is contiguous with Vĩnh Cửu nature reserve thus providing an enlarged area for species to breed. The forest is now protected by the Kiểm lâm (VN Forest Rangers) with responsibilities for managing poaching, fire control, and other issues.
Parts of the park area suffered historically during the Vietnam War when it was extensively sprayed with defoliant herbicides. However, substantial further damage was done by logging up until the 1990s. To this day these areas have extensive bamboo and grassland cover and trees have not yet grown back.
Archaeology
The Cát Tiên archaeological site is located just outside the park boundary on the northern bank of the Dong Nai river (between Cat Loc and Nam Cat Tien, facing towards the latter). Excavations carried out between 1994 and 2003 revealed a group of temples, belonging to a previously unknown Shaiva Hindu civilization which probably inhabited the area between the 4th century and 9th centuries AD (possibly later). A large number of gold, bronze, ceramic, coloured stone, and glass artefacts are currently displayed in the Da Lat museum.[5]
1. Primary evergreen forest areas perhaps comprise only about 2% of the Nam Cat Tien area; can be highly diverse but are dominated by trees in two families (for other Families and Species see below):
The abundance L. calyculata is discussed by Blanc et al.[8] especially as an indicator of secondary forest. "It appears to be a very good competitive species able to regenerate on denuded areas: along roads and on land abandoned after cultivation. Human disturbances have mostly affected Dipterocarpaceae for resin and Fabaceae for their wood."
3. Secondary forest with abundant bamboo species: this due to human activity, the forest having been degraded by logging, forest fires and in some areas war-time defoliants, which have caused the forest canopy to be replaced with bamboos. Common trees include Lagerstroemia calyculata, Mesua sp. and Xylia xylocarpa, with bamboo species present.
5. Seasonally flooded grasslands: CTNP has substantial (approximately 10%) area of grassland (including disused farmland) and wetlands[6][9]
In the rainy season, Dong Nai river water floods into an area of 2,500 ha area of northern Nam Cat Tien, along the Da Kluo which is a reverse flow stream (like Tonlé Sap) replenishing the lakes: Bau Sau (crocodile lake), Bau Chim, Bau Co and the surrounding grasslands.
In the flat eastern half of Nam Cat Tien especially, there are a number of swamps (see above) surrounding isolated, poorly-drained small open areas – typically 3–10 ha – that might best be described as wet meadows – that are often surrounded with swamp forest and may also contain vernal pools.
Numerous endemic species, having their type locality at CTNP, have been described by Vietnamese and international scientists: including those at the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre. More than 20 species of organisms have the name "catienensis" or similar, including two palms (Licuala illustrated here), the bracket fungus Tomophagus cattienensis, two reptiles and four insects to date.
Between the park headquarters and Ta Lai village there are substantial replanting areas, including a 200 ha area supported by European Community between 1996 and 1998.[11]
Fauna
Mammals
Golden-cheeked gibbon female in the park
The park hosts many mammal species; the following may be encountered:[12]
The park fauna included the Javan rhinoceros, and was one of only two populations in the world, until poachers shot and killed the last rhino in Cát Loc in 2010. There are also records of banteng and kouprey, but the latter may now be globally extinct, and wild Asian water buffalo no longer occur in Cat Tien.[13] Some accounts also list Indochinese tigers, leopards, clouded leopards and dholes; however, a recent series of surveys did not confirm this.
The most developed insect lists currently cover ants, butterflies, dragonflies, mosquitoes and termites; of the latter, Macrotermes spp. have an important ecological role, with large colony mounds very commonly encountered in the forest.
Cat Tien comprises an important reserve in Vietnam, both for the habitat it protects and the number of species it contains. Although the population of the Javan rhinoceros went into extinction, it is still home to 40 IUCNRed List species, and protects around 30% of Vietnam's species. The park is, however, threatened by encroachment from local communities, illegal logging and poaching.[15] In addition, the park is too small for the larger species found inside it. This has led to either their local extinction or conflict with local people as these animals move beyond the confines of the park. This problem is particularly intense for the park's elephant population, which is prone to wandering and is considered too small to be self sustainable.
Since the early 1990s, partly as a result of the discovery of rhinos in the park, international donors and the Vietnamese government began to invest more money in protecting the park and managing the resources of local State Forest Enterprises, nearby and adjoining forests (including Vinh Cuu Nature Reserve), in co-ordination with the park as a whole. There have been moves to combine a management plan that allows for both traditional park management and some limited resource utilisation by local people, which include the Stieng, Chau Ma (now concentrated in Ta Lai) and Cho'ro minorities.
In 2008 the Forestry Protection Department collaborating with the Endangered Asian Species Trust (UK), Monkey World Ape Rescue (UK) and Pingtung Wildlife Rescue Centre (Taiwan) founded the Dao Tien Endangered Primate Species Centre. The centre focusses on the rescue, rehabilitation and release of the four endangered primates found in Cat Tien (golden-cheeked gibbon, black-shanked douc, pygmy loris and silvered langur), developing Government guidelines for release of primates. The centre conducts informative daily educational tours explaining the centre's work, with a chance to see young rehabilitated gibbons in the trees.
^Millet, J Reforestation of Dipterocarp forests on denuded area of Cat Tien National Park in Dong Nai Province, Viet Nam. [1] (accessed 28/12/2016)
^Blanc L, Maury-Lechon G, Pascal JP (2000). "Structure, floristic composition and natural regeneration in the forests of Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam: an analysis of the successional trends". Journal of Biogeography. 27: 141–157.
^Kuznetsov AN, Khoi SV, Vasiliev BD, Luong P, Borissenko AV, Thinh NV, Bobrov VV, Zinoviev AV. (2002) Results of complex zoological-botanical expedition in Cat Loc, Cat Tien National Park. Vietnam-Russia Tropical Centre, Cat Tien National Park conservation project: Technical report no. 36. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236331047
^Project no. VNM/B7-5041/I/95/19: see Millet ibid.
^Nguyen, M., H., (2009). The status of Vulnerable gaur Bos gaurus and endangeredbanteng Bos javanicus in Ea So Nature Reserve and Yok Don and Cat Tien National Parks, Vietnam. Oryx 43 (1), 129-135.
^Vassilieva AB, Geissler P, Galoyan EA, Poyarkov NA, van Devender RW, Böhme W (2013) A new species of Kukri Snake (Oligodon Fitzinger, 1826; Squamata: Colubridae) from the Cat Tien National Park, southern Vietnam. Zootaxa 3702(3):233–246 (ISSN 1175-5326)
^Polet & Ling (2004). Protecting mammal diversity: opportunities and constraints for pragmatic conservation management in Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam, Oryx, 38
_1_by_N._A._Naseer.jpg)
